Melinda Clarke

Melinda Clarke stars on The O.C. as hot-yet-devious mom Julie Cooper-Nichol, and had a recurring role as Lady Heather on CSI. She's guest-starred on many TV shows, including Charmed, Everwood, The District, Nash Bridges, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Seinfeld.

Appeal

Melinda Clarke has sex appeal to spare. Even before her sexy role as Julie, the mom everyone loves to hate on the hit show The O.C., she vamped it up. She played the woman who convinced Jerry to shave his chest on an episode of Seinfeld, and was memorable as Lady Heather, a professional dominatrix who had the normally unflappable Gil Grissom (played by William L. Petersen) wrapped around her finger on CSI.

That's not to say that Melinda doesn't have a wild side in real life, too. On Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Melinda admitted that she got really drunk at her wedding reception in 1997, doing an exotic pole dance to The Doors' classic "LA Woman" in front of everyone. While she gains sexiness points for that sort of behavior, she naturally loses them for being married, hence unavailable.

Success

Melinda Clarke has carved out a successful career for herself as a genre actress. Starting out on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives in the late 1980s, she's appeared on numerous TV shows, including Xena: Warrior Princess, Seinfeld, Sliders, Nash Bridges, Star Trek: Enterprise, Charmed, Everwood, The District, and CSI. She's also had roles in movies, most notably Mulholland Falls (1996) and Spawn (1997).

Fame has been a little elusive for Melinda. Although she has been on many hit shows over the last decade or so, she never became a big name; perhaps as a regular on The O.C., this will change. Nevertheless, she's had unique and broad exposure, posing for FHM and Maxim, and she even has two action figures modeled after her: one as Jessica Priest from Spawn, and another as the evil Velasca from Xena: Warrior Princess.

Melinda Clarke Biography

Melinda Clarke was born on April 24, 1969, in Dana Point, California. Her father, John, is an actor, while her mother, Patricia, is a ballet dancer; with both parents in the arts, Melinda followed in their footsteps. She was trained in dance and ballet, and even as a coloratura soprano, while growing up with brother Joshua and sister Heidi (who died in 1994). Once in her teens, Melinda decided to pursue acting, her father's profession.

Melinda moved to Los Angeles to start her acting career at age 18; in no time at all, she had her first job, playing Faith Taylor on Days of Our Lives. Of course, it didn't hurt that Melinda's father John had been a regular on that daytime soap since it first began back in 1965. Melinda left the show after a brief stint from 1989 to 1990.

melinda clarke on xena and seinfeld

During the first half of the 1990s, Melinda took roles in mostly forgettable movies, such as Hot Under the Collar (1991), Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993), Young Goodman Brown (1993), Out for Blood (1993), and Return to Two Moon Junction (1994). During this time, she turned down a role in Scream (1996) -- reportedly because she didn't want to be in another horror movie like Return of the Living Dead 3 -- and she was also one of a few actresses to turn down the starring role in TV's Xena: Warrior Princess.

Nevertheless, things began to pick up for Melinda during the rest of the decade. In a bit of a reversal, she appeared in the cult horror outing The Killer Tongue in 1996. She then appeared in Spawn (1997) and became a bigger TV star, landing guest shots on Xena, Seinfeld and Sliders, and starring in S.O.F. Special Ops Force.

After 2000, Melinda appeared on Nash Bridges, Charmed, Star Trek: Enterprise and Everwood, had a role in the pilot for First Monday, and had memorable recurring roles on The District, as Detective Olivia Cahill, and on CSI, as Lady Heather.

melinda clarke on the o.c.

In 2003, Melinda Clarke lent her voice to The Animatrix and began starring on the new FOX hit show The O.C.. As Julie Cooper-Nichol, Melinda has helped redefine that staple character of prime-time soaps, the Machiavellian matriarch. She's already dumped one husband when it looked like his fortunes were falling and found another richer and older one; plus, she had an affair with her daughter's ex-boyfriend after putting her daughter -- played by Mischa Barton -- in therapy.

But thankfully, real life isn't that dramatic for Melinda. In June 1997, she married Ernie Mirich in a small, private ceremony with friends and family in her hometown of Dana Point (actress Charlotte Ross was one of Melinda's bridesmaids). The two now have a daughter, Kathryn Grace.